Blinken Must Go
Day 2 of the Antony Blinken show was worse than Day 1: Testifying to the Senate the morning after a savage House grilling, the State Department chief still had no clear answers to basic questions about the Afghan-pullout fiasco — only gray evasion.
Even many Democrats hit hard. “The execution of the US withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed,” said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). “This committee expects to receive a full explanation of this administration’s decisions on Afghanistan since coming into office last January. There has to be accountability.”
But Blinken, a yes-man at Biden’s side for decades, took no responsibility, sidestepping questions that could expose his culpability.
Would he give the committee the July 13 State Department dissent cable in which Kabul diplomats warned the country could fall quickly after the US exit? Blinken paused. No: Releasing it would have a “chilling effect” on future dissenters. How?
Blinken speaks carefully so as to say . . . nothing. After a senator noted many insiders warned of Kabul’s collapse, he said every government has varying voices, “some worstcase, some best-case and some in between.”
This consummate functionary thinks listening to other functionaries is his real role, not taking and giving wise counsel and turning it into action. When Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Blinken had a “detachment from reality” if he believed “our NATO allies are on board with this thing,” Blinken insisted, “We factored everything we heard from our allies in our decision-making process.” “Factored” in but ignored, as those allies publicly pleaded for an extension to get their citizens and allies out.
He wouldn’t even offer insight into what State is doing to handle the fallout. When Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) asked him for specifics on how Team Biden is working to protect girls and women at risk from the Taliban, Blinken just repeated his nowweeks-old blather: “We’ve worked to rally the international community to set very clear expectations for the Taliban.” As if terrorists don’t just laugh at finger-wagging.
With countless Americans and allies still at the Taliban’s mercy, the nation needs a top diplomat who can offer more than blander-than-bland evasion. But Blinken, as ever, is focused only on telling his boss what he wants to hear while smothering anything to the contrary in a sea of fog. He must go.